I'm building a custom 4 inch single exhaust for a 2003 regular cab short bed truck. So far it has Texas Speed headers and Y-pipe, with the Y is modified to open up to 4 inch.

The problem I'm having is that there is a curved round crossmember after the transmission crossmember that is making things difficult. The 4 inch pipe wants to run right through where the crossmember tube is.

See the picture below. It's an earlier year truck (not mine) but it gets the point across. I marked the problem crossmember in red.



Ideally I would like to remove it, weld a notch into it, or remove it and build a new crossmember that bolted to the bottom of the frame. Routing a 4 inch pipe around it is going to be a pain and expensive. I'd rather have a simple straight tube all the way to the rear axle.

So the question is, how important is it to the frame structure? Has anyone removed this crossmember to get better clearance for a large exhaust pipe?

 

I believe it's there more so to tie the rails together and keep them from rolling. I am sure you could replace it with something that well clear the exhaust you would like to run.

 

I removed that to install my dual setup.

 

I would notch it with a piece of c channel turned the correct way if it was me.

 

wouldn't be there unless structurally necessary. Like previous post noted...notch it.

 

4 Inch diesel exhaust kits are cheap and have a piece molded to go around this crossmember

 

I notched mine to better fit the 3.5" exhaust.

 

Well it's good to see that someone else has removed it. My thought was that it probably does help keep the frame rails more stable but it wouldn't be the end of the world if it was gone.

I got lucky and didn't have to modify mine at all. After getting the tail pipe installed and test fitting my intermediate pipe, I was able get the 4 inch pipe past the crossmember with about a 1/2 inch of clearance between.

 

I had a similar problem on my 04 2500 4x4 crew cab short box. It's lowered and I installed an aluminum driveshaft. I notched mine